video games
Role Played
Thoughts on getting back into modern-day gaming later in life after taking a very long break. (Warning: This is a very elder millennial post, leaning on geriatric.)
Breaking Bubsy News
Oh no, someone made a new Bubsy game. And that someone was Atari. How concerned should we be?
The Game Genie Generation
For an unlicensed game accessory, the Game Genie sure casts a long shadow. It reshaped the games we already owned—and had a profound effect on copyright law.
Control Freaks
An analysis of how three weird-but-widespread game controllers shaped the way we play.
Trip’s Big Interactive Reset
Why 3DO’s true innovation wasn’t its early 3D hardware, but its business model—a model that perfectly matches its founder’s philosophy.
Save Our Emulators
Nintendo’s strong-arming of the Switch emulator Yuzu shows how little the company understands its own fan base. Emulators will not die so quietly.
Locked Up In Regions
The history of region-locking, a once-unintentional process of keeping devices built for one region from being used in another. (Now Apple’s doing it.)
We Beat The Machine
The story of a 13-year-old gamer crashing the NES version of Tetris in a record-setting run is one of the best stories we have going right now.
Fall Of The Mouse House
With less than two weeks to go before Public Domain Day 2024, signs are already emerging that creators are ready to rethink Steamboat Willie.
The Obvious Warning Sign
The decision by Unity to screw over its developers, even if they reverse it, points at deeper unresolved issues in the digital economy.
Hot Dive Summer
In praise of Dave the Diver, the video game that made me realize that harpooning sharks in the middle of the ocean, then turning them into sushi, is extremely fun.
Willow’s Second Wind
Why the NES game Willow somehow resonates more than the film that inspired it. It might have been the mindset of the company that made it.
A Quiet Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey², a groundbreaking video game console, never reached the heights of the Atari 2600—but it lived plenty of extra lives.
The Scrolling Orb
The evolution of the trackball, which is more than an upside-down mouse. It's the Royal Canadian Navy’s greatest gift to modern-day computing. Really.
Intellectual Pinball
Q: Following the great video game crash of 1983, where did arcade operators and bar owners go next? A: Trivia games!
Retro Psychology
Two memory scholars published a 1983 book on the psychology of video games. What elements of gaming culture are still with us, and what have faded away?
2001: A Gaming Odyssey
A look back at 2001, a pivotal year for online gaming. The big-name publishers weren’t really ready, but fan games more than filled the gap.
Nothing Lasts Forever
The key thing to remember about this week’s Congressional chaos is that it seems to be in the rearview. Here are some thoughts about renewal and fresh starts.
Worst Firmware Update Ever
How Sony screwed up 15 years of goodwill with developers and open-source users by removing Linux support from its console—support hacked back in anyway.
Turtlemania, Revisited
Looking back on the early multimedia adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with a bit of nostalgia on the side.
A Requiem in Stereo(scope)
More than just a gimmicky gadget, the Nintendo 3DS was a marvel of handheld gaming in the 2010s. And now, a decade after it appeared, it’s gone for good.
Epic MegaFight
Why did Epic Games decide to go scorched-earth on the App Store model last week with Fortnite? Perhaps it reflects the company’s shareware roots.
A True (NES) Advantage
How the NES Advantage, thanks to its long pop-culture reach, came to define the concept of a good controller in the 8-bit console generation.
Meet Our Virtual Contestants
Game shows and video games are a surprisingly perfect match, as any Nick Arcade fan knows.
Pac-Man Pattern Fever
Pac-Man’s fun and addictive nature captured public imagination and kicked off an entire culture of video game mastery that’s still going strong today.
Adventures In Interactivity
Interactive text adventures were a big part of the early days of gaming—and still lots of fun today. Who needs fancy graphics when you have your imagination?
The World’s Most Pawsome Mascot
The story of the world’s greatest video game mascot, as it’s never been told before! Let’s discuss how great Bubsy T. Bobcat is … according to Bubsy T. Bobcat!
Total Edutainment Forever
The problem with edutainment in the 1990s was that, while it covered the education, it didn't do enough to entertain the kids. Sorry, Math Blaster.
The Sound Of Nostalgia
The iconic tones of the Sega Genesis have proven tough to recreate in the modern day—but the Analogue Mega Sg might be the solution for that. Here’s our review.
Saved, But Not Forgotten
The evolution of saving in video games, from the password to the cloud, and nearly every obscure memory card format in-between.
In Total Control
From the arcades to the living room, how the controller has evolved—and why one tech historian, Benj Edwards, started building his own.
The Platform Microsoft Forgot
The MSX computer standard was big in both Japan and Brazil. But despite a sizable cult, it may be the most obscure part of Microsoft’s history. Here’s why.
The Ballad of Yo! Noid
In the '80s and '90s, advertisers got the idea to market products to kids through video games. The games aren't half-bad (mostly), but they're still ads.
Retail’s Tech Champion
Sears and Roebuck—a firm that has seen better days—helped sell the public on computers, video games, and online services. (They made great catalogs, too.)
Duck, Duck, Goose?
What if someone solved one of retro gaming’s biggest headaches and few people noticed? Such is the tale of the Modern Mallard, the great Duck Hunt fix.
Absolutely Brilliant!
The British company Codemasters, best known for the Game Genie, didn’t let a pesky lack of license get in the way of creating some of the NES’ best games.
Not Just Nostalgia
The strange and wonderful world of homebrew games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Yes, new games are still being made three decades later.
It’s New To You
The story of FuncoLand, the retailer that made the used video game market a thing—and how GameStop, which bought Funco, sort of bastardized that mission.
Australian Rules Nintendo
What an Australia-only NES game secretly reveals about many of the early Nintendo games that came out in the United States.
Sharper Pixels
The push for pixel perfection at the heart of the enthusiast retro movement—and the company that wants those pixels to look better than you remember.
Modem Madness
Who said they just had to make games? From answering machines to lottery prototypes, Sega and Nintendo tried weird things with modems in the early ’90s.
The Knockoff Game
How the success of the Game Boy inspired a variety of rip-off consoles sold under a variety of bizarre corporate structures. This goes deeper than the Lynx.
How To Checkmate Yourself
The parlor games hosted by Yahoo! once represented some of the internet’s best efforts at interactivity. But that didn’t last. Here’s how Yahoo! Games lost.
Sega, In Channel Form
How the Sega Channel, a game-download service in the 1990s, helped redefine what was possible with cable lines before they became fast internet workhorses.
“It's Weird That it Didn't Seem Weirder”
Don’t Die’s David Wolinsky, a fellow traveler in the world of tech and gaming, offers his take on NESticle’s place in the broader culture of video games.
An Extra Serving
The history of NESticle is so rich that some details wouldn’t fit into Ernie's recent Motherboard piece. He’s putting some of them here.
The Keys To Success
A lot of early video game consoles secretly wanted to be home computers, too: Their makers either sold keyboard add-ons or failed miserably in the process.